Jake Niall
The AFL will seriously consider allowing clubs to trade future draft picks - adopting a model from American sports - with a number of clubs and influential figures in favour of the right to trade draft selections a year in advance.

Emma Quayle
Tom Boyd had no idea when he left on an Indonesian surf trip in October that he would be a Western Bulldog before his holiday was over. Nor had he ever contemplated the thought of Adam Cooney wearing anything but blue, red and white.

Emma Quayle
Carlton-bound Jason Tutt may be the only player selected in this week's pre-season draft, while St Kilda is considered more likely than not to give Ahmed Saad a second chance on the rookie list after his 18-month suspension for taking a banned substance.

Peter Hanlon
Wherever you sit on making grown-up saviours out of kids who've never played in a man's world, there is no denying the AFL national draft's explosive growth. "It's insatiable now," says one former insider. "No matter how much you feed the beast, the beast just gets hungrier."

Emma Quayle
The AFL national draft has come and gone for another year. Of course it will be hard to properly assess the hits and misses of the 18 AFL clubs for some years yet. But our resident expert Emma Quayle has given a snapshot of your club's fortunes at this year's selection table.

Andrew Stafford
Paddy McCartin claimed to be as surprised as anyone else. ''It’s pretty surreal mate. An hour ago I was sort of just sitting out there hoping something would happen; then all of a sudden a click of a finger; it’s done,'' he said after being taken at No. 1 by St Kilda in the AFL national draft.

Liam Mannix
All the focus of this year's draft is already on clubs' first round picks – but a new analysis reveals players taken in the second and third round are actually far more important to a club's success.

Daniel Cherny
The AFL is open to rethinking the trade ban it placed on Sydney in time for the 2014 player exchange period. The ban prevented the Swans from acquiring players from other AFL clubs during in 2014 or 2015 - either in the trade period, or as a restricted or unrestricted free agent.

Emma Quayle
This time last year Tom Boyd was wearing orange and charcoal, having his photograph taken on the beach and being celebrated as the No.1 draft pick. Now he is at the Whitten Oval, training with his second team.

Michael Gleeson
The key forward prevailed over the midfielder, St Kilda opting to take the heir apparent to Nick Riewoldt over the dynamic midfielder Christian Petracca with the first pick in the national draft.